Reva Kibort was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1933. She had four sisters and two brothers. The youngest of the children died in infancy making Kibort the youngest of the six surviving siblings. Her father was a shoemaker who had several people working for him. He made new shoes. Some were special footwear for children that had problems with their feet. In a good season, the family ate well. In a bad season, food was not as plentiful. Her mother took care of the home and the children. Her family was an observant Jewish family but not extremely religious compared to other Polish families. They observed the Shabbat and her father put on a hat when he ate. He never smoked on Shabbat, but he never went to synagogues. In comparison to American standards, the family was very religious. Kibort only went to synagogue with her father on holidays. Their home was kosher and Shabbat was always observed. The house was clean and the food was well presented. Kibort only encountered anti-Semitism once when she was young, around 1938. She observed little girls in their white dresses near a statue of the Virgin Mary. They looked like little brides. They shouted at Kibort that she was a dirty Jew and she should go away. Kibort was only four or five years old at the time. She asked her mother about that incident. The little girls had spoken to her using very derogatory Polish terminology. Kibort could not attend school [Annotator's Note: German laws were instituted that prohibited Jewish children from attending school. Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939].

Reva Kibort could not attend school because the war broke out in 1939 when the Germans invaded Poland [Annotator's Note: 1 September 1939]. Her father was killed right away during the two week, merciless German bombing of Warsaw. On 14 September, he had attempted to locate Kibort's older sister who was away from their home during the bombing. Her father never returned. [Annotator's Note: Kibort stops for a moment due to the emotional memory.] He was killed by a bomb. He could not be found for two days. Kibort was six years old at the time. Her mother and aunt went to look for him. The streets were littered with dead bodies of people and horses. Polish soldiers and their horses had been killed by the bombing. The dead were left where they fell. Kibort's father was found in a cemetery. He was still in his suit, but his shoes were gone. There were only two scars on his forehead. The family presumed that he had been either killed by the bombing or by a stampede of civilians trying to escape the aerial attack. He was only 42 years old so he was too young to die of a heart attack. He was buried in a mass grave with many other dead. He had died on 14 September which was a High Holiday, Rash Hashanah. The bombing stopped shortly afterward. Her mother became a widow with six children. The first German soldiers seemed to be just an invading army. They were normal people who provided the civilians with soup and bread. There was no Gestapo or SS. Things seemed to be fairly normal until 1940. Until then, the Germans tried to get the populace to clean up the rubble from the bombing. In about April 1940, new laws were issued. Sigmund Fischer [Annotator's Note: Ludwig Fischer] was the Commissioner of Warsaw. A Judenrat or Jewish Council was organized. It was headed by Adam Czerniaków and included its own Jewish police force. The first implemented law forced Jews from their homes. The ghetto was to be organized.

Reva Kibort and her family were forced into the Warsaw Ghetto surrounded by its ten foot high walls. The Jews lost their jobs and any finances that were held by any bank. Jews were further humiliated by having to wear identifying armbands. They were forbidden to attend movies, synagogues or any other place where groups were gathered. The 123,000 Jews in Warsaw were forced into a very constricted area of the city. It was only 1.3 square miles. The Jews from surrounding areas near Warsaw were also brought into the Ghetto. Nearly 450,000 people would ultimately be contained within those walls. Seven to nine people were assigned to rooms. As a child, Kibort would listen to her father discuss politics. He would talk about America and a desire to go there. The family had insufficient resources to make that wish happen. In 1939, two of her father's unmarried brothers immigrated to Russia. They asked him to go with them. Had he done so, he might have survived the war. He could not leave his family. The uncles survived the war in Russia. When Kibort, her five siblings and their mother moved to the Ghetto, they were lucky. Kibort had a wealthy aunt who already lived there. They moved in with her and her young daughter in their apartment. Her cousin was later killed. As the months went by, rationing of food became more restrictive. It seemed the purpose was to starve the inhabitants. Sanitation was terrible. Things continued to deteriorate. People were starving to death. Disease was rampant. The family survived the typhus. The physical appearances of Kibort's family seemed to be more Polish than those ascribed to the Jewish population. They had fair hair and facial features unlike those attributed to Jews. Smuggling allowed the family to bring in food for their use and to sell to others in the Ghetto. Kibort's mother provided for her children through those means but only temporarily. In 1941, the Ghetto was sealed off. No one could exit or enter the walls. The Gestapo, SS and Ukrainian forces controlled access. The Ukrainians were the worst of them all. Their hatred of the Jews knew no bounds. Today, when Kibort hears of the capture of a guard or commander of a death camp who claims innocence, she is afraid of getting involved. They may come after her. The individual and the children claim the events never happened although witnesses place the individual at the scene. After the Ghetto was sealed off, things deteriorated. Every morning, Kibort would see dead bodies covered with newspaper in the courtyard. Clothing would be removed from the dead for personal use or to sell to others. The black-market selling of personal possessions was commonplace. Some children were abandoned on the streets to die when their parents had no food in the house. The elderly were victims, too. [Annotator's Note: Kibort stops for a moment due to the emotional memory.] They were the first victims. People would pass down the streets with carts to pick up the bodies. Kibort's father's mother died of starvation in the Ghetto. The family could not help her. [Annotator's Note: Kibort stops for a moment due to the emotional memory.] Life went on as the population in the Ghetto diminished. In 1942, the population had decreased to 100,000 to 80,000. The people were like zombies waiting for death. The head of the Judenrat [Annotator's Note: Adam Czerniaków was head of the Judenrat or Jewish Council] was told to round up the survivors for deportation. At the end of 1941, two of Kibort's sisters left the Ghetto to live on a pig farm, assuming the identity of two gentile girls. They wore crosses and had Polish names. In June 1942, they heard other girls say that all the Jews in Warsaw were being killed. The girls had glee in their voices as if they were happy in telling what was happening. Both of Kibort's sisters returned to the family in the Warsaw Ghetto. Kibort's mother was thrilled to see them. At the same time, she told her children that if they had an opportunity to survive, they would have to leave. Her two sisters and brother left first and smuggled themselves out of the Ghetto. Kibort's older sister took her and they fled the Ghetto. By the time, Kibort had reached the wall, her mother, sister and aunt had been rounded up by the Germans. She never saw her mother and sister again. They were taken to Treblinka with the other Jews who were rounded up in the Ghetto. [Annotator's Note: Kibort is overcome by emotion at the memory.] Adam Czerniaków would not take the Jews to the Umschlagplatz for deportation to Treblinka. He committed suicide rather than forcing the people to go that location. He was the head of the Judenrat, and he killed himself. His wife and their child may have survived. He could not bring himself to turn in the rest of the people to the Gestapo. Kibort and her sister exited the Ghetto by crawling through holes under the wall that had been made by rats. The only other way to escape beyond the wall was to go over it. A person would be shredded in the attempt. There was glass and wire at the top of the ten foot wall.

Reva Kibort left the Warsaw Ghetto and made her way to the Aryan side. Her mother had provided them with some valuable things and told them of a man who used to do business with their family. She told her children to go to see the man and he would save them. They reached the man on 22 July [Annotator's Note: 1942]. That was when Kibort's mother was taken away [Annotator's Note: Kibort’s family separated into three groups as they fled the Ghetto. The first two groups escaped but her mother, sister and aunt were in the third group which was apprehended by the Germans. They were sent to their deaths at Treblinka.]. The family members that had successfully fled the Ghetto rendezvoused at that man's house. He took them in and took their money. During the middle of the night, he got drunk and yelled at the refugees. He called them dirty Jews and said they should immediately leave his home. The drunken man knew Kibort's father and mother. Kibort wonders if that man would have done the same thing if he was not drunk. The young Jews left the man's house and went into a field of corn to hide. They knew their mother and the last part of the family would not be joining them. By the time they had left the house, they could see the German trucks coming in for the round-up of any Ghetto survivors. The soldiers were going from one room to the next. At one time in the Ghetto, when Kibort was there only with her mother, a round-up was initiated. Kibort went into a dirty clothes basket while her mother hid under the bed. A soldier came in and poked her with a bayonet in the hamper. She said nothing for fear of being captured. The man did not look under the bed. There were so many chances that Kibort might have been killed, but she was not. She did not know if the soldier was a kind person or just did not see her. After being thrown out of the drunken man's house, the family decided to go to the small town of Demblin. It was the birthplace of her mother. There were relatives there. The escapees traveled by train and pretended not to be Jewish. The sisters wore crosses around their necks. Kibort acted as if she was a mute because she only spoke Yiddish. That was the only language spoken at their home. Kibort knew no Polish. Her sisters had attended school and knew how to speak Polish. Kibort was never allowed to go to school after the Germans arrived in Poland [Annotator's Note: she was six years old on 1 September 1939 when the Germans invaded Poland]. By the time they reached Demblin, all the Jews had been rounded up there. It was August or September 1942. All relatives had been taken away except for an uncle. No one wanted to have anything to do with them. Their uncle was fearful of taking them in. He told them to wait and they would be picked up that night. They were transported in garbage cans to be with the surviving Jews. They got rid of the crosses and were among their own people. They felt safer with their own people rather than with non-Jews. The following day, the Gestapo came and rounded them all up. They were taken to the train station.

Reva Kibort and her surviving family members were jammed into crowded box cars to be sent to an unnamed destination. Whatever a person had to do, it had to be done on the train. Since Kibort was a small girl, others would look out for her. Her oldest sister took very good care of her and her siblings. She assumed the role of their mother. The group was in the boxcar for a night and a day. The train stopped when the track had to be changed at a train station [Annotator's Note: rail gauges were not standardized throughout Europe at the time]. The boxcar was opened at that time. It was summer. The Polish fields were beautiful and green. The local Polish inhabitants who stared at the Jews did not offer them any food or water. Instead, they shouted derogatory things at the prisoners. They said they were glad that the Jews were leaving their country. Kibort was young; she could not comprehend why the people were being so mean. They were mocking the Jews on the train. The Jews were taken to a slave labor camp called Demblin [Annotator's Note: also known as Deblin]. The Germans needed their captives to work at the camp. An airport was being constructed near the camp. Gardens were grown to produce food for the Germans. There were ten children with Kibort in the camp. She was the oldest. There was one infant born in the camp. It was allowed to live. The women who worked at the airfield carried stones for the airfield. Some of Kibort's sisters worked in the fields and in the kitchen. The inmates were warned against trying to take any of the food. They would be hanged for trying to take any potatoes or vegetables. An inmate's daily ration was a triangle of dark bread and a bowl of cabbage soup that had white worms in it. The worms were eaten in order to survive. They represented a means to go on living. When a person is hungry, they will eat anything to survive. That was the meal for the day. The inmates would be taken out of the barracks at four or five in the morning to do a headcount. One day during the count, the prisoners saw a man hanging in the yard. That man had attempted to bring food from the fields into the compound. He hung there for three days so that others would be scared enough to prevent them from attempting to do what he had been caught doing. Kibort stayed in the barrack most of the time she was at that camp. She was there from 1942 to 1944. The Polish Capo in charge of the barrack was a very nice woman. She was protective of the children. She kept them out of sight of any soldiers that inspected the barrack. It was safer that way. The youngsters hid for two years and survived as a result. In 1944, the Russians were winning the war. Additionally, the Americans had entered the conflict against Germany. The Germans decided to evacuate the inmates from the camp. The guards anticipated that they would be executed if the advancing Russians entered the camp and saw the condition of the inmates.

Reva Kibort and other inmates were gathered up again and put into boxcars [Annotator's Note: the inmates were forced to flee the concentration camp near Demblin, Poland because their Nazi guards feared the implications of the advancing Russian Army seeing how the inmates had been treated by them]. It was July 1944. It was still warm. It was hot and suffocating in the car. There was no food or water provided for the inmates. They arrived at a camp called Czestochowa. The men were separated from the women and children. The women were told to disrobe and put on the particular uniform that was common to the camp. Every camp had a different uniform. Kibort could not see where the men went after they were separated from them. Kibort and the other children were singled out into their own group. She held a six month baby girl at the time. A German yelled at Kibort in his language. He instructed her to throw the child away. Kibort placed the little girl on the ground. That same German soldier told Kibort to run away. She ran as fast as she could into the dirty pile of clothing the women had just left behind. She did not know what he would do with the other ten youngsters. He machine gunned all the other children. Kibort has never understood why the soldier opted to save her. She may have reminded him of someone he loved or knew. For a split second, he may have had a heart or a conscience. She may have been saved to be witness to the unbelievable cruelty she saw. Kibort was frightened and stayed in the dirty clothing until it was dark. The dead children were put in a ditch. After dark, she raced into the women's barrack. They questioned her about the status of their children. Kibort dared not tell them the truth because she survived and their children did not. She was smart enough to deny any knowledge of what had happened. The women knew anyway. The next morning, the inmates had to get up and be counted [Annotator's Note: a morning and afternoon ritual in most concentration camps]. The prisoners were given the same diet of dark bread and soup plus some ersatz coffee. They were in a slave labor camp unlike the death camps of Bergen-Belsen, Auschwitz-Birkenau, or Buchenwald. All four camps around Czestochowa were slave labor camps. Czestochowa was a very famous place. It had the Black Madonna in the middle of the street. Kibort went to work in the munitions factory every morning. Her job was to wash the bullets that were manufactured there. She used soapy water then dried them and put them in boxes. She worked ten hours a day. Her sisters worked at the machines making the bullets. Kibort did that for one year. On 16 January 1945, the inmates heard the Russians were coming. The war was coming to an end. Many things were going on in camp. People anticipated being liberated. On 17 January 1945, the city was bombed. No one was hurt in the camps when bombing occurred. The Germans were planning their escape but first they took some of Kibort's siblings and marched them to the boxcars. They were attempting to remove people from the camps so that the Russians would not discover what was happening there. The inmates would be witnesses to the horrible events. Kibort stayed in the camp with another sister. The two sisters and one brother who had been taken from the camp to the boxcars were not transported away. They managed to survive. Kibort's older sister took her younger sister's place in the boxcar. When Kibort's name was called, her older sister took her place [Annotator's Note: Kibort's voice shows emotion at the memory]. As things turned out, all the siblings survived. The Germans did not have sufficient time to take the inmates away in the boxcars. After the guards vanished, Kibort was asked to go to the kitchen to check for any food. There was none. The next day, it was bitter cold. Kibort had no shoes, only burlap-like cloth covering her feet. She had sores on her feet. When the camp was liberated and the gates were flung open, the inmates had no idea of where to go or what to do.

Reva Kibort was liberated in a hostile country with no one to protect them [Annotator's Note: she had been an inmate at a slave labor camp near Czestochowa, Poland until liberation in January 1945]. Even the Poles would not help them. Warsaw had been destroyed [Annotator's Note: Warsaw was Kibort's birthplace]. Her father was dead and her mother was gone. The siblings did not know what to do. They decided to return to Demblin, the birthplace of her mother and father. They hoped someone had survived. They journeyed for three weeks to their destination. The group of siblings separated. One sister went with her brother. Kibort was accompanied by her other sister. They walked from Czestochowa to Demblin in Poland. They had no food and were insufficiently clothed. They begged along the way but met with hostility from the local population. After the weeks of walking in the bitter cold, they reached a farm. An elderly woman had pity on them. She gave them fresh clothing and shoes. They were ill-fitting, but the refugees were happy to receive them. Importantly, the elderly woman gave them food. They stayed overnight then began the walk to Demblin again. Upon reaching their destination, they discovered no one was there. They had walked with some other women from the camps. They found a dilapidated house without a roof and stayed there. There were Russian soldiers nearby. The soldiers had little to offer to the refugees. The older girls were fearful of the soldiers attacking them. Kibort would often be used as the face of the group since she was a little girl. The soldiers would not molest her. The group was mainly left alone. While they stayed in the roofless house, Kibort would be sent out to attempt to find food. She finally found potato peelings in a collection of garbage. It was snowing so the snow was used to wash the peels. They were put in a pot and cooked. That sustained the hungry group for a few days. Kibort does not like potato peelings even to this day. They found out that Lublin, which was close to Demblin, was a gathering place for Jewish survivors. Lublin had been the site of Majdanek, a notorious death camp. People from Israel and other locations had assembled there to aid the survivors. Kibort and her siblings wanted to go there and be amongst their people. Since they had no money or resources, they rode on the exterior of a train in order to reach Lublin. There was an armory there for people to gather. On the wall were lists of people who had survived. They put their names on the wall but could find no one else. Her older sisters were 20 and 22 years old. They wanted to get jobs. The three younger siblings could not work. They were informed of an orphanage that was accepting Jewish and non-Jewish children. She lived there with her sister and brother until the end of 1945. Her two sisters married men who had survived the war. Many married right after the war to begin rebuilding their lives. While in the orphanage, Kibort found out that many people were going back to Germany to be near the Allied forces there. The rumor was that the orphanage was going to be disbanded to go to Germany. It could not because there were too many children. Two of Kibort's sisters had made it to Germany. One overheard a friend saying that she was going back to Warsaw to claim her daughter who was in an orphanage there. The sister requested that the woman bring Kibort back with her. The group had to travel across multiple borders without a passport or even country they could claim as home. They traveled at night. They crossed into Czechoslovakia and then Germany. The trip was uneventful. They reached a DP [Annotator's Note: displaced person] camp in Germany near Landsburg. She found her sister and brothers were together there. It was her first DP camp.

Reva Kibort joined her two sisters who went to a DP [Annotator's Note: displaced person] camp near Munich called Foehrenwald. She had no other place to go because of her youth. There was no one other than her sisters to care for her. A school was organized while Kibort was in the camp. The students were both older and younger than Kibort. Education in Hebrew was stressed with the intention of the children immigrating to Israel rather than America. Israeli language and history were studied. They lived as one big family, similar to the kibbutz approach in Israel. She seemed to have a lot of brothers and sisters in that environment. It was wonderful living there even though she was in Germany. At the end of 1946, everyone began to talk about going to America. General Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General, and later President, Dwight D. Eisenhower] had moved the German civilian and military population out of the area and dedicated it to the Holocaust survivors. He visited the camp to survey the status of the conversion. As a young girl, Kibort was given the opportunity to present the General with flowers as a welcome to the camp. A photograph was taken of the General holding the flowers. Kibort spoke no English so she could not address him verbally. Later in life, her son searched the web and discovered the event. He noticed the General holding the flowers, but he did not see his mother. Kibort told him that maybe she was not important enough [Annotator's Note: Kibort chuckles]. In 2018, Kibort's niece in Naples, Florida was organizing a dedication of a beautiful Holocaust Museum being constructed there. The museum invited David Eisenhower, President Eisenhower's grandson, to participate in the opening gala. He addressed his grandfather's role in the DP camps in a book he had written on President Eisenhower. Kibort's niece asked her aunt if she would speak at the ceremony and present flowers to David Eisenhower, just as she had done for his grandfather in the DP camp. Kibort said she was no longer 12 years old but she would attend the event. She met David Eisenhower and they embraced. She spoke to him of her meeting General Eisenhower in the DP camp. He was impressed with her keen memory at her advanced age. Kibort told him that she was thankful to God for her continued good memory. Living conditions were very crowded in the DP camp. People were given small apartments. Although crowded, the DPs received plenty to eat. There were packages from America that were sent by the Red Cross and the UNRRA Association [Annotator's Note: United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency]. Food was also available in Munich. People could obtain work. Life was not normal, but conditions were better. Eventually, the camps emptied out with most people going to America. At the time, the English would not allow immigration to Israel. [Annotator's Note: The British Mandate over Palestine, later Israel, ended in May 1948. Until then, there was a significant effort on the part of Britain to avoid Arab-Jewish hostilities. Key to that effort was suppression of open Jewish immigration to Palestine.] Immigration illegally was sometimes possible. Kibort's brother entered Israel via Italy in late 1946. He traveled legally as part of a group from the orphanage. Kibort and her sisters could not go to Israel.

Reva Kibort was in school at a new DP [Annotator's Note: displaced person] camp called Neu Freiman near Munich when an American soldier entered her classroom. He asked the students through the teacher who spoke English if there were any orphans present. Kibort raised her hand. Kibort did not speak English but her teacher translated. Kibort was then asked if she wanted to go to America. She confirmed that she did. Kibort went to the little bungalow that she shared with her two sisters in the camp. All the homes were shared in the camp. When she explained her opportunity to travel to America, the older of her two sisters said she would agree only if the other sister, Etta, could go with her. The next day, Kibort asked if her other sister could go with her to America. When the answer was affirmative, she and her sister began a three month odyssey to reach America. It began in the American Embassy. By April 1947, they were told that they would be called to the train station to begin their journey. Her two oldest sisters were settled and married with children at the time. Kibort told them goodbye and went to the German port of Bremerhaven with her sister and boarded the Marine Marlin. The voyage took nine days. Kibort and other children were sick during that time. The children were survivors out of the one and a half million children murdered by the Germans. Not too many young people survived the killings. America was called the golden country by Kibort's father. She looked forward to landing there. Kibort never found gold on the streets [Annotator's Note: she laughs]. She had a vision of America based on the beautiful movies she saw in the DP camps. It turned out to be different for her. She arrived in New York in May 1947. New York harbor was beautiful, shiny, and unbelievable. Women at the docks gave them hot cocoa and pastries. The children were still sick so they could not eat. They were placed on buses and traveled to either the Bronx or Brooklyn. The route with its large buildings was impressive. They arrived at an old hotel and stayed for a few days until the next location assignment. The youngsters were given pajamas, an orange, and a Hershey bar. Her sister, Etta, was given the same things. They took showers and were assigned sleeping accommodations with three or four to a room. Kibort decided to save the chocolate bar and eat the orange immediately. When she arose the next morning and looked under her pillow, the chocolate bar had melted. There was nothing to eat [Annotator's Note: Kibort laughs]. At breakfast, the new arrivals were given cereal and cold milk. That was unusual for the former Europeans who had grown up with their mother feeding them hot cereal and warm milk in the morning for breakfast. The girls stayed in the hotel for about a week. They saw the Statue of Liberty and climbed to the top to look out the windows. They visited all over New York and were treated very nicely. Upon departing New York, Kibort and her sister were assigned to an orphanage in Chicago.

Reva Kibort arrived at a large orphanage which housed about 200 children of multiple faiths. She arrived at Marks Nathan Home at the end of May [Annotator's Note: she arrived at Marks Nathan Chicago Jewish Orphans Home at the end of May 1947]. She was put in school but her sister Etta was too old. Kibort was placed in a class with younger children because she spoke no English. The teacher asked the students if anyone spoke Yiddish. One student raised her hand. As it turned out, the only words the child knew were instructions to go to sleep [Annotator's Note: Kibort laughs]. No one could communicate with her. The teacher thought she was too old for the class with younger children. She was moved to another class. There was still no one who could communicate with her. On 2 July 1947, she was sent by train to Minneapolis. She was assigned to a foster home on 4 July. While in Chicago, she had been asked if she preferred a kosher or non-kosher home. Since she had no knowledge of what a non-kosher home would be, she asked to be sent to a kosher home. A kosher home was selected for her. She was assigned a social worker to help in her transition. The lady's name was Jeanette Swartz. Kibort was separated from her 18 year old sister because of her age. The older sister was placed in a boarding house. Kibort's new home was nothing like she had seen in the movies [Annotator's Note: Kibort had formed an optimistic view of life in America by watching Hollywood movies at the displaced persons, or DP, camps in Germany]. Her new home was a dark bungalow with a dark porch. It was small and dingy inside. The people were warm even though they did not speak any Yiddish. The couple's grandfather lived with them and, fortunately, he understood Yiddish and spoke it to some degree. That was initially the only way Kibort could communicate with her foster parents. She slept on a rollaway bed that she had to open at night and put away each morning. Kibort had lived through having her own home in Warsaw, then endured the Ghetto, followed by life in two slave labor camps, then existence in two displaced persons camps and multiple orphanages. She anticipated that coming to America would at least mean having her own bedroom. There were other boarders in the house so there would be no personal living space for Kibort. She was nearing 14 years old and learning to take care of herself. The people were good to her and the feelings were returned. She washed laundry and did other chores. When school started, the couple did not know what to do with Kibort. At 14, they pondered whether she should attend high school or junior high. Kibort's social worker decided to place her in Lincoln Junior High School in Minneapolis. She attended school for a year and a half without saying anything. Her English was very basic. If she tried to talk, the other children would laugh and embarrass her. She finally had a wonderful teacher named Ms. Lowe who agreed to help her learn English. The teacher tutored her and she began to catch on to the language. Once she learned the language, progress in the other subjects came much easier to her. She had already learned math, geography and history while she was a student in the DP camps. Even after learning English, she was hesitant to speak. With her academic progress, she even managed to skip the ninth grade and go directly into high school. She graduated in 1950. She met her future husband, Ben, in 1948 before high school graduation. He had survived Dachau and been liberated by the American Army. Kibort was married in July 1950 at the age of 17. The Korean War had broken out and her husband registered for the draft. He wanted to get married so his new wife could move out of her foster home and into the home of his parents. Ben had survived the war with his two parents and a brother. He was lucky. He was 23 and she was 17 when they married. Prior to her marriage, no one wanted to hear about her past and the horrible events she encountered. Today's interest in the Holocaust is surprising to her. She ponders why it took so long. Interest could be attributed to Shindler's List. [Annotator's Note: The 1993 movie produced by Steven Spielberg that depicted the horrific circumstances of being a Jewish captive of the Nazis. Oskar Schindler created a list of his Jewish workers who were ultimately rescued from execution.] People may have thought that they were protecting her by not asking about her past. She needed to talk about those circumstances. They were hurting her. People should have asked what happened to her mother and father. They did not. It was painful for the survivors to live with the memories. Her feelings toward Germans are mixed. She will never forgive them for what they did to her. That being said, any young Germans or even Germans her age were too young to be implicated in what happened in Germany under Hitler. If they were old enough to be part of the Hitlerjugend, Hitler Youth, they were old enough to speak up. She has a grievance with them. She has nothing against the young generation. She returned to Berlin with relatives. She even returned to Poland twice. The first time was with her husband and a group from her synagogue. The second time she went with her children and grandchildren. The reason she went back to Berlin was because her deceased husband, Ben, wanted to stand in front of the Brandenburg Gate where Hitler [Annotator's Note: Nazi Dictator Adolf Hitler] stood in triumph. He wanted to be there with his children and grandchildren to show them that Hitler did not succeed. Kibort lost her husband but felt compelled to go and fulfill his wishes. [Annotator's Note: It is an emotional experience for Kibort to recount this achievement.] She was in Berlin with her rabbi and a group of 30 or 40 from her synagogue. They stood in front of the Gate. Their picture was sent around by the rabbi with the notation that Hitler did not succeed.

Reva Kibort is very angry about the losses she experienced during the Holocaust. She lost her father and mother among the millions of people who were killed by the Nazis. At the same time, she is grateful that she not only survived but her three sisters and a brother lived through the horror. She has a beautiful home and opportunities in America. She also has had a beautiful family. She has two sons, a daughter and numerous grandchildren. Her children have had successful careers. She is very proud of their accomplishments. In addition, they are good people and good citizens. She has 11 great-grandchildren. That alone proves that Hitler did not succeed. Their Jewish heritage continues. She prays that the world will never see that happen again. People are basically all the same. They were created by the same God. Kibort suffered constantly from nightmares for years. She would dream of being stabbed to death or pushed into the graves of children. [Annotator's Note: Kibort experienced a German soldier thrusting a bayonet at her while she hid in a hamper under dirty clothes. Later, upon arrival at a slave labor camp, she witnessed the execution of children while she hid among discarded clothes. The bodies were thrown into a ditch.] She also has a terrible fear of closed rooms. She could not go into the room for a hearing test because it had no windows. It seemed as if she was going into a gas chamber although she had never done so. She knew what it would be like. She started to cry. All she could see was her mother and sister going into the gas chamber. She still has not had her ears checked. Another bad experience is when she sees any kind of train pulling boxcars. The images come back to her of her transport. She continues to have a terrible fear of German Sheppard dogs. Those dogs were used to attack the Jews. Adjusting to American life was somewhat easier for Kibort because she was so young. Attending school and socializing with American children made it easier for her than for her older, married sisters who did not know the language. Her largest issue was learning the language while in school. She loves her social life. She enjoys cooking and entertaining, but her life has changed with the death of her husband. She still drives her car, goes to concerts and takes care of herself. She is concerned that we live in a dangerous world where circumstances similar to the Holocaust can be repeated. The Jews may not be targeted, but it might be others. Holocaust survivors are aging and few can still tell their stories. That is why Kibort continues to do so. The message must be continually given even though it is emotionally tiring for her. The independent state of Israel should have been created sooner. People could have found refuge there when other countries rejected them. The ship, St. Louis, voyaged extensively but was never given safe harbor. The passengers went back to Germany and many of the Jews were killed. Israel could have been a place for them to take refuge. The conflict between Arabs and Jews has to be reconciled somehow.